Donald Trump says that he was not informed of American soldiers who disappeared in Lithuania

President Donald Trump said he had not been informed of four US soldiers who have been missing during military exercises in Lithuania.

Why it matters

About 1,000 American soldiers are stationed in Lithuania on a rotation basis. Lithuania and the support of Poland, the Russian exclave from Kaliningrad, where Moscow founds its naval fleet of the Baltic Sea, and the two NATO countries share important land boundaries with the key to Russia, Belarus.

NATO has strengthened its eastern flank, near Russia, while the members of the alliance are increasingly strong alarms around the question of whether Russia could attack the east edge of the alliance. Baltic states and Lithuania have storming with efforts on the level of the Alliance to make defense spending, but by deepening concerns about whether the tens of thousands of American soldiers currently stationed on the continent will remain in the Trump administration.

The Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Kęstatis Budrys, said during a visit to Washington, DC on Wednesday that Vilnius was happy to welcome American rotation battalions in the country, and that the state of the Baltic was ready to accept more American troops, according to a reading published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Budrys said at a meeting with the American Secretary of State Marco Rubio that Lithuania provides “the best conditions for American troops to train and live in our country,” added reading.

What to know

US army Europe and Africa said on Wednesday that four soldiers from the 1st brigade, 3rd infantry division, were absent in the training area of ​​General Silvestras žukauskas near Pabradė, which is around six miles from the country's border with Bélarus.

The soldiers would have disappeared around 4:45 p.m. Local time on Tuesday said the Lithuania army.

When asked by a journalist if he had been informed of the situation, Trump said: “No, I didn't do it.”

President Donald Trump speaking on Washington DC on Wednesday at the White House. Trump said he had not been informed of four soldiers who were missing during military exercises in Lithuania. President Donald Trump speaking on Washington DC on Wednesday at the White House. Trump said he had not been informed of four soldiers who were missing during military exercises in Lithuania. Win McNamee / Getty images

The soldiers carried out “a tactical training planned at the time of the incident,” the US military said in a statement. He added that research efforts concerned the American and Lithuanian soldiers, as well as the police.

In a subsequent update, the American army said that an armored vehicle Hercules M88, that the four soldiers used at the time of the incident, had been found “overwhelmed in a body of water”.

The Minister of Defense of Lithuania, Dovilė Šakalienė, said at LRT on Thursday that there were “positive signs” in the work to recover the armored vehicle, after the rescue efforts continued overnight.

The vehicle is “several meters” underwater and difficult to recover, said the minister.

NATO chief Mark Rutte seemed to confirm the death of the four soldiers on Wednesday during an appearance in Warsaw, before a spokesperson for the Alliance specifies that the secretary general “referred to emerging reports and did not confirm the fate of the disappeared, which is still unknown”.

“We regret any confusion,” said NATO acting spokesperson Allison Hart, in an X article.

“I would like to personally thank the Lithuanian armed forces and the first stakeholders who quickly came to our aid in our research operations,” said Lieutenant-General Charles Costanza, the general commander of the American army corps stationed in Europe, in a statement.

“It is this kind of teamwork and support that illustrates the importance of our partnership and our humanity, whatever the flags we wear on our shoulders,” said Costanza.

The United States has had its base Camp Herkus in Pabradė since 2021.

What people say

The Minister of Defense of Lithuania, Dovilė Šakalienė, told TLR: “There is no guarantee that the soldiers are [the vehicle]. Other scenarios are also taken into account. “”

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania, Kęstatis Budrys, said in a press release published on X that “Lithuania greatly values ​​the solid partnership with the United States and deeply appreciates the American military presence in our country. The inhabitants of Lithuania are broken by news concerning missing American soldiers.”

What happens next

Research and rescue operations are underway at local Thursday morning time.

Update of 03/27/25, 4 h 50 HE: This article has been updated with additional information.

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